The Magic of "Warbreaker" Trivia Quiz

Answer: They can change the color of their hair at will.

The ability to change their hair color marks them as members of the royal family - no one else in Idris is capable of such a feat. It requires concentration not only to change the color of their hair, but also to hold it as only one color. When we are introduced to Siri, the youngest daughter, she is a carefree adventuresome lass whose emotional state generally overrides her personal control over her hair color.

Answer: A Gesture

To awaken something like a small figure of a person made of straw, it would require about 25 Breaths, power taken from the color of something (clothing, a painted wall, etc.), and a Command given to the figure - something simple. The more something is shaped like a person, the easier it is to awaken; things not people-shaped would take many more Breaths and color to awaken. When the color is 'taken' from an object, a dull grey is left behind. It is rumoured that Awakeners of the highest level (the 10th Heightening), drain colour completely to white, rather than grey.

Once the awakened object has completed its task, the Awakener can reclaim a portion of the Breath used to awaken it by touching it and uttering the words, "Your Breath to mine."

Objects such as these are considered 'Type III' Awakened, according to the research of the Five Scholars.

Answer: 50

A Breath cannot be forcibly taken from someone; it must be freely given. In Hallandren it is common for people to sell their Breaths for the essentials needed for living, or to acquire some perceived need. It is also impossible for people to give someone else only a portion of the Breaths that they have (if they have more than one) - it's all or nothing. Losing your Breath is not fatal, but those who do so are called 'drabs' - figuratively, all the color has gone out of their lives. It also affects their life sense - you know that feeling you get sometimes when someone's watching you? Drabs don't get that.

At the First Heightening (50 Breaths), one receives the ability of Aura Recognition, described as granting "a person the ability to see the Breath auras of others instinctively. This allows them to judge roughly how many Breaths the person contains and the general health of that Breath."

Answer: False

BioChronometric Breath would have something to do with timekeeping. The correct term is 'BioChromatic', which makes a direct reference to the importance of color, both in the use of Breath when practicing awakening, but also in how BioChromatic Breath affects one's perception of hues.

Answer: Lifeless

Awakening Lifeless is not limited to creating an unstoppable force of soldiers. Many people also have Lifeless as servants (for simple tasks), and even animals can be awakened.

To awaken a Lifeless once used 50 Breaths, but developments by the Five Scholars made it possible to do so using only one Breath. With the cost of creating Lifeless greatly reduced, new vast armies were created, prompting the beginning of the Manywar.

The Five Scholars classified Lifeless as 'Type II' Awakened.

Answer: Fifth

The Second Heightening is Perfect Pitch, which comes with 200 Breaths. At 600 Breaths one receives Perfect Color Recognition, with which "one can instantly and instinctively determine exact shades of colors and their hue harmonics." With 1,000 Breaths an Awakener achieves Perfect Life Sense at the Fourth Heightening. At the Fifth Heightening, where the Returned automatically find themselves, resistance to aging and diseases reaches its full strength. An Awakener with 2,000 Breaths will find themselves with Agelessness, becoming functionally immortal.

The difference between an Awakener at the Fifth Heightening and a Returned is that Awakeners can use their Breaths to awaken things, while Returned cannot. For the Returned, their Breath is like one super-powerful Breath, not partitionable.

The Returned were classified by the Five Scholars as 'Type I' Awakened.

Answer: Every week

This fact is learned about in the novel through the perspective of Lightsong, one of the Returned, in his first appearance (Chapter 3). When Lightsong wakes up, he notes that it is his feast day, and that he will be weak until he 'eats' a Breath freely given to him by a worshipper.

Answer: Completely heal someone else

Despite having become Returned because of some heroic act in their previous lives, Returned have no memories of their previous lives at all. As members of the pantheon, they are spoiled, doted upon by their priests and by worshippers, and they live an indolent and carefree lifestyle. Returned, consequently, very rarely use their ability to completely heal someone else.

Part of Lightsong's duties (as organized by his priests) was to hear petitions from his worshippers - usually family members asking on behalf of sick loved ones for his sacrificial gift of healing.

Answer: A sword

The sword was named Nightblood, and it could communicate with whomever was holding it. When it was realized that Nightblood had no concept of good or evil, and could potentially be a horribly destructive force, no further research was done in that area.

In order to awaken things of stone or metal, one needs to be at the Ninth Heightening (which is achieved with 20,000 Breaths), and then expend 1,000 Breaths in the object being Awakened.

Nightblood is now carried by Vasher, one of the main viewpoints in the novel and a very mysterious character.

Answer: True

By virtue of being a Returned, Susebron was granted the Fifth Heightening, just like the other gods in the pantheon. What Susebron also received when he was 'born', was the 10,000 additional Breaths that his father, the previous God King, passed on to him. Those extra Breaths came from the practice of the God King receiving TWO Breaths per week, instead of the usual one needed to stay alive.